The Effects of Constant Touch on Consumer Behavior: The Case of Iranian Mobile Phone Users

Faculty Member of Social Sciences, Department of Social Welfare, Tehran University

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to argue how the mobile phones have transformed the Iranian lifestyle and how the arrival of mobiles has been a catalyst for revolting behavior, and has launched a new consumer behavior and has changed our relationships. The paper explains how the people's behavior has developed a whole new social code in Iran. It is argued that the social value of being able to make a phone call at any time will also be extremely large. The paper discusses the contradiction of individualist behavior and using mobile phones more publicly, that is to say, it used to be that you had to make an effort to overhear other people's conversations. The paper investigates several questions relating to changing lifestyles such as whether men spend more time on the phone than women in Iran after the arrival of Mobile phones, whether mobile phones are just the preserve of a certain age group, whether class and wealth play a major part in mobile phone ownership, and whether the expansion of the mobile culture will be influenced with the removal of phone boxes. The paper points out that the Mobile expands the space for individualism by asserting itself against old hierarchies: people allow having more than a private mobile phone; nobody controls all forms of long-distance communication, and the phone is not the property of state organizations. In the age of mobile phones, it is the individuals, and not the society that play the major role.